Abstract

A year ago Dilma Rousseff took office as Brazil’s first female president. The focus of her first year was largely on domestic issues, including the introduction and extension of new and existing social programmes, tight fiscal control of the economy following a brief surge of inflation in the first couple of months of her presidency and the maintenance of a strong majority within Congress. At the same time, she saw seven of her ministers forced to resign as a result of various scandals. However, their falls did not affect her personal reputation, which remained favourable by the end of last year, at over 70%. In large part this reflected her status as the handpicked successor of her predecessor, Lula, who left office on similarly high approval ratings. His eight years (2003-10) were marked by economic growth and increasing social equality through redistributive social programmes.